Posted on 01/01/2009 3:49:33 AM PST by Zakeet
One sign the liberal news media live in a plastic Manhattan bubble is their undying ardor for the Kennedy Myth, best known by that public-relations construct "Camelot." Instead of a president and First Lady, they believe, we had the King and Queen of Glamour. Never mind if their marriage was a joke and his list of presidential accomplishments was short. Never mind if the Republican half of the country feels sickened by the obsession. The media preferred the myth – and they still do to this day. It is why they are promoting the anointment of unaccomplished Caroline Kennedy for the U.S. Senate in New York.
The very same media which spent months dismissing former mayor and Gov. Sarah Palin as too inexperienced for national office is now championing a woman whose primary qualification – her only qualification -- is her last name. The very same media which still mock Palin’s folksy "you betcha" or her interview with Katie Couric don’t seem to notice when John Fund reports that in one 30-minute interview on the cable news channel New York One, Caroline Kennedy used the slang "you know" a total of 168 times.
How will Caroline Kennedy be expected to cast votes in the Senate when she’s cared so little about voting as a citizen? Faced with reports that she had missed voting in several New York elections, including the 1994 re-election effort of Sen. Daniel Moynihan (the Senate seat she now expects to be handed like royalty), Kennedy told the Associated Press "I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."
What?
There’s a long line of New York politicians who are more qualified and more deserving of a Senate seat than this dippy heiress – even liberal ones. Yet they have to watch this wannabe sound like one of her limo drivers just handed her the dismaying news of her own voting history? You know?
But the Kennedy-worshiping media elite just can’t stop scratching their Camelot itch, showing those ridiculously over-broadcasted home movies of the Kennedy kids, and marveling over Caroline Kennedy’s life story. From "Nightline," here’s ABC high-fructose syrup specialist John Donvan: "She would be the fourth Kennedy to be called senator. Surely a new dynastic record. And her return to Washington would close a circle after nearly half a century. For this is where, when her dad was the president, we first came to know the little girl, riding his shoulders, saddled up on ponies."
Riding ponies in your playground years somehow qualifies you for federal office, at least if your last name is Kennedy.
Donvan set the bar of qualifications incredibly low, for Caroline Kennedy had no drug arrests or overdoses, and no rape trials, unlike her cousins: "Other Kennedys of her generation ran afoul of the law, but Caroline Kennedy raised her kids and did work for charity and did the family name proud." Never mind that she admitted doing drugs in the 1970s "like a typical member of that generation."
Caroline is also allegedly qualified because she had no Chappaquiddick: "Consider this, Ted Kennedy, same name, but it took him years to figure out how to become the Lion of the Senate, with multiple missteps along the way, not always doing the name proud....At least she has kept it the way it was remembered, as part of a story that so many wanted to believe in."
Back in August, this same network treated John McCain’s choice of Palin with nothing less than contempt. They "looked a little like father and daughter out for an ice cream," said ABC’s David Wright. This is the same David Wright who swooned when Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama last January. Obama became the "adopted son of Camelot...blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, but by JFK’s daughter."
McCain aide Mike DuHaime attempted to tout Palin’s "incredible life story" when she was first picked, but ABC anchor Bill Weir told him that in the "brutality of a national campaign," Palin was neglecting her duties as a mother: "She has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?" This is the same Bill Weir who found the first whispers of Caroline Kennedy for Senate "exciting to talk about."
Reporters are incredibly transparent in their biases these days. Experience is a huge issue – unless a Kennedy is running. Motherhood isn’t a qualification for office – unless a Kennedy is running. Smarts are important – unless a Kennedy is running.
In short, the media have a slight possibility of being fair – unless a Kennedy is running. You know?
The United States is slowly leaving its republican era and transitioning to its imperial era.
As a Freeper older than 45, I think of JFK as a great disappointment. He was a man of great charm ,mediocre intellect, and low morals. As president, it is hard to gauge his accomplishments, since he had one foot in the post-war and one foot in the Vietnam era. His great blunder was his complicity in the assassination of Diem, which discredited our efforts to maintain South Vietnamese independence. Those who say that he intended to pull our forces out of Vietnam surely forget what a mess had been created by ths spring of 1964.
As a Catholic, I see him as a bad Catholic pretending to be a faithful one: untutored , uninterested in his faith. A poor husband with a trophy wife, unable to keep his pants zipped, though with much better taste in women than Boy Clinton.
His “set” mocked the style of the Eisenhowers for their Army manners, and affected a style straight out of “the Great Gatsby.” His books were ghost-written, but he was presented as an intellectual because of his abilility to banter with the press. Yet he was less the student of public affairs than Ronald Reagan, as we now know. He was presented as an athlete, which he was, but not a healthy one. We now know the truth about him but this has only increased the ardor of his youthful admirers. He is contrasted with Johnson and Nixon, with Nixon totally demonized so as to mask the responsibility of Kennedy and Johnson for the Vietnam War.
In short, the truth about the man has been not such much forgotten as “colorized” like some black and white film, to obscure the sharp outlines of the actual past.
It was going to suck regardless.
While I’m not in disagreement with anything said here about Caroline K., L. Brent is “pot-kettle” .
L. Brent’s father was friends with William Buckley at Yale. So friendly, he married WFB’s sister Patricia...thus, Bill Buckley is L. Brent’s uncle.
He has ridden his conservative connections hard, to the point that he has made a living with a career as a Professional P. O. (Perpetually Offended) member of the East Coast establishment Right.
He is the Jesse Jackson of the right.
PR esident Kennedy, if you catch my drift.
Excellent post and summation. Very well written.
Unfortunately, given the people who the voters have been electing to public office recently, these "qualifications" really do make her a moral standout over a lot of members of the house and senate.
At least she's never been caught smoking crack on tape, saying "the bitch set me up!" or impeached for taking bribes, or having the FBI find $90,000 in marked bills in her freezer (though the last did lose this time around - maybe there is a limit to what voters will accept)
BTW, I rode a pony when I was little. Does that make me eligible to be appointed to the NY senate seat? I've certainly spend more time living in NY state than Hillary did when she was elected to the senate by NY.
Mark
Great list. But, IMHO, you left out the most important, “The Biggest Loser.” :)
“I grew up in the 70s so I’d say I was a typical member of that generation.”
That’s true. Almost everyone I know who grew up in the 70s is just like CK. Most of them have net worths in the $400 million range. Most of them live in $13 million Park Avenue digs. They also own propery that averages 366-acres on places like Martha’s Vineyard. And, their property is worth around $50 million or so.
And most of them have never had to work for a living. They generally have $1 a year jobs.
So, yeah, she is pretty typical of the people I know who grew up in the 70s. Those were some good years across America. No one had it rough back then or since. Even the 70s people in the ghetto have million dollar estates and huge properties in the suburbs. You can spot them by their pimped out cars.
I'm more inclined to believe that from Teddy since he has a reason not to remember his past.
I hear Barky is going to make the NYT his press secretary.
Yes, I supported Kennedy in 1960. Was a gopher in Austin for Sen. Ralph Yarborough. Friend of mine who served in Judge Yarborough’s Washington office, which was close to Kennedy’s, told me of the parade of beautiful women to Kennedy’s office. Naively he asked another worker, what that was all about. The replay was a broad grin. My friend, then looked at me and smiled. Oh, I said. He said, yeah, that was mt reaction, too.
Hide the interns, it’s gonna be Bill Clinton, ya know.
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